


First of Many Masks

by Gerbilfriend



Category: Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan
Genre: Couriers, Gen, Spy shenaigans, the "diplomatic corps" indeed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24795142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/pseuds/Gerbilfriend
Summary: Alyss, learning and belonging
Relationships: Pauline duLacy & Alyss Mainwaring
Comments: 11
Kudos: 16
Collections: Ranger's Apprentice Summer Fluff 5K





	First of Many Masks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maeve_Lynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maeve_Lynn/gifts).



> I hope this is fluffy enough XD

Learning to be a courier is nothing like Alyss expected.  _ Which,  _ she mused as she practiced the cypher,  _ is the point. _

They were the diplomats, Alyss had known that. Alyss had expected to spend her apprenticeship learning new languages, studying the political makeup of Arulen.

She was doing that.

There were plenty of different languages that she was trying to learn, that she was going to have to gain some proficiency in in order to pass her examinations.

She was definitely doing that. Alyss had files full of notes on politics.

It just was not the only thing that the Diplomatic Corps apparently did for the kingdom. That 

They were also the spies. 

That fact settled into Alyss’s chest as she learned how to read code. How to pickpocket. But mostly, mostly how to blend in.

It was a lot. It was a lot and Alyss loved it.

“People underestimate us,” Lady Pauline had explained the first time she helped Alyss adjust her uniform.“They look at us and just see the voices we carry, they never consider that we might have our own.”

Alyss had stored that with the rest of her mentor’s new, cryptic sayings. The ones that she wasn’t quite sure about.

That had been a month into her apprenticeship, before she had had the courage to ask about the papers and the cypers and the kit of dyes that she had found once in the back of Pauline’s quarters.

Before she had had the courage to ask her why she was learning so much about deception and double speak.

“People underestimate us”, Alyss had come to learn, meant that people saw them as message carriers and little else.Why would you worry about the person who brought you a paper, yes, they were considered respected enough to have a title, but a mouthpiece was just a mouthpiece.

People didn’t expect the mouthpiece to think, much less to report back.

“Knowledge is the lifeblood of a kingdom,” Pauline told her on the day that Alyss had received her bronze laurel.

Had won her bronze laurel in a test she had guessed that she was taking.

She had to retrieve a folder of documents from a lord’s study. 

She had worn her first mask, hair stained brown and with Jenny’s smile, borrowed because it was a smile she had known for most of her life, and saw the value of as a tool for disarming people. It was warm, friendly.

It was the kind of smile that made people want to like you.

Alyss was sure that Jenny wouldn’t mind her borrowing to pose as an assistant cook to gain access to the kitchen. 

From there it had been an easy step to bustle into the Baron’s quarter’s and grab the document that Pauline had planted for her.

Inside had been her pin.

Well, Alyss hadn’t realized it was her pin until she was on her way back to Redmont, night finished and the job closed.It was never a good idea to be caught in someone's office opening correspondence, that was just common sense.

That was something else Pauline had taught her: patience. It might be tempting to run off into the night with the information you stole, to rush it back to wherever you came from.

It was also, “an amazing way to blow your cover.” Alyss hadn’t quite realized what Pauline had been teaching her about, at least back then.

It was best to blend back in, at least, when you could afford too.

“We are always listening, always learning, and we are unknown. We have many masks for many names”.

Alyss had put on the pin that night, and Pauline had kissed her on the forehead, soft, maternal.

Her lessons had gotten harder after that, faster. She was a member of the corps, a true member, even if she only wore the bronze laurel.

A week later Pauline was showing her exactly why the courier standard needle pointed dagger was useful, and just how many ways a pin could be used to unlock a door.

“How many couriers are there in Redmont?” Alyss had asked, three months in. 

Pauline had smiled her teacher smile, “See if you can figure it out.”

It had been a trick question. There were three couriers at Redmont, however, what Alyss had not known was that there were members of the Diplomatic Corps besides couriers.

“Do we have someone in every profession?”, Alyss had asked after six months and an exhausting week as a cobbler.

She now knew more about shoes then she ever thought that she would.

Pauline thought for a moment. “We don’t have any Rangers yet”.

“Yet?”

Pauline had smiled her spy's smile.

The one that promised hints and rumors and secrets.

Alyss wondered how many people her mentor trusted with that one. It made her feel warm that she was included in the number. She wondered how long it would be until she had a smile like that of her own, she wondered who she would trust with it.

There were more than just disguises though, she needed to know the laws as well. 

George was amazing there. Alyss had always known her wardmate was smart, she had known it the same way she knew Horace was strong and Jenny was kind and Will was quick.

She really appreciated it when she had someone to study with.

“Is that okay?”, Alyss asked, worried one night after a study session.

“Why wouldn’t it be? People skills will be your best asset in our profession.” Our’s, it made Alyss feel warm.

Our’s, like she belonged.

It was nice. The ward had been a home, and a home that she had loved, but everyone had known that it was temporary. That they would leave and find new places, other homes, even if they would not forget each other.

Now Alyss had done that.

She was a courier.

She belonged there, learning how to weave words into weapons, learning how to become other people.

Alyss belonged.

  
  



End file.
